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The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, January 4, 2024

Posted on January 4, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man who invented a system of reading and writing for the blind, Louis Braille, born in Coupvray, France (1809). He was blinded in his father’s harness shop when he was three years old. But even without his eyesight, he was the best student in his school, and went on to become a famous organist and cellist in Paris.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Posted on January 3, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of J.R.R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien, born in South Africa (1892). He was a professor of philology, the study of the derivation of languages, at Oxford. He was fluent in classical Greek and Latin, Old Norse, Old English, medieval Welsh and Anglo-Saxon, and an ancient form of German called Gothic, among other ancient European languages. He was so interested in the structure of language that he decided to invent an entire language of his own. He even invented a new alphabet to write in that language, and when he began writing Lord of the Rings, he gave that new language to the Elves, calling it “High Elvish.” He later said, “I wrote Lord of the Rings to provide a world for the language. … I should have preferred to write the entire book in Elvish.”

The Writer’s Almanac for Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Posted on January 2, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It was 515 years ago, on this day in 1492, that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella captured the city of Granada, the last major Muslim stronghold in Spain, bringing to an end more than 700 years of Islamic influence on that country. Muslims from North Africa had first invaded the country back in the year 711, capturing most of the major cities and then ruling without challenge for three centuries.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, January 2, 2024

Posted on January 2, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, born in Petrovichi, Russia (1920). His family immigrated to the United States when he was three years old, and his parents opened a candy shop in Brooklyn. He spent most of his time working in the family store, and he was fascinated by the shop’s newspaper stand, which sold the latest issues of popular magazines. When his father finally relented and let him read pulp fiction, Asimov started reading science fiction obsessively.

The Writer’s Almanac for Monday, January 1, 2024

Posted on January 1, 2024 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of American writer J.D. Salinger, born in New York City (1919). He’s one of the most famous living authors in America even though he hasn’t published anything since 1965, and he’s been living as a recluse since then. He’s best known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye, about a boy named Holden Caulfield who gets expelled from his boarding school and spends the next few days wandering around New York City, trying to figure out why people have to grow older, why everyone is so phony, and where the ducks go when the pond in Central Park freezes over.

The Writer’s Almanac for Sunday, December 31, 2023

Posted on December 31, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the novelist Nicholas Sparks, born in Omaha, Nebraska (1965). He wrote his first book as a young man, a horror novel called “The Passing,” which he never tried to publish. He said, “In all honesty, it’s a wonderful story — except for the writing.” But soon after that, Sparks met his future wife. Over the course of two months, he wrote her 150 love letters. They got married and had kids, and Sparks gave up trying to be a writer, eventually taking a job as a pharmaceutical sales rep.

The Writer’s Almanac for Saturday, December 30, 2023

Posted on December 30, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of short-story writer, poet, and novelist (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling, born in Bombay, India (1865). His father was a British artist who got an appointment to run an art school in Bombay, but after a series of typhoid and cholera outbreaks, Kipling’s parents decided to send him back to England for his own safety.

The Writer’s Almanac for Friday, December 29, 2023

Posted on December 29, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It was on this day in 1916 that James Joyce published his first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The idea for the book had originated with an autobiographical essay that Joyce had written way back in 1904, when he was still living in Ireland. He’d submitted it to a journal, but it was rejected on the basis that it was too frank about sexual matters. When Joyce got the rejection letter, he sat down at his kitchen table and sketched out a plan to expand the essay into a novel about his own childhood.

The Writer’s Almanac for Thursday, December 28, 2023

Posted on December 28, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the 28th president of the United States, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, born in Staunton, Virginia (1856). He was one of the few American presidents who came to office after a career in academia. He’d started out as a professor of history and political science at Princeton University, and in 1902, he was appointed president of Princeton. But he ran into a series of disagreements with the Board of Trustees over his ambitious plans to remake the university. He was on the verge of getting fired in 1910, when he received an offer to run for governor of New Jersey. He took the offer, and wound up winning the election by a landslide.

The Writer’s Almanac for Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Posted on December 27, 2023 - Writer's Almanac

It’s the birthday of the man credited for proving that disease is caused by germs: Louis Pasteur born in Dole, France (1822). He was a scientist who specialized in the properties of acids when, one day, a local distillery owner asked him to figure out why the fermentation of beet sugar into alcohol sometimes failed. At the time, people knew about the existence of microbes, but most scientists thought they were insignificant oddities.

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